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Can you split the question and answer up?
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hookedonwinterMar 3 '10 at 17:16

Or I guess I can.. But you should :)
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hookedonwinterMar 3 '10 at 17:17

For the Southeastern U.S., you can add "Olde Towne" from Huntsville, AL. They're -very- local to this area, and have only been in business for a few years. But if you're lucky enough to be near here, GO FIND SOME. No neck label and the plastic main label peels straight off. They're the BEST for re-usable bottles!
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KOJun 19 '10 at 14:31

Sweetwater bottles in the southeast work well too. And the beer is better than Olde Towne... :)
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EllJan 21 '11 at 20:44

Europe

Das Helles Swing Top Brown Strong Bottle

Belgium. I've been able to easily remove the labels from every Belgian bottle I've tried, with just a soak in water. This applies to all the Trappist beers, abbey ales including Leffe, and all the small breweries. Not sure about Stella and Hoegaarden.

Krusovice Pilsener - sometimes a little difficulty with the foil neck ring, but it's well worth the effort. Labels slip off in hot water with One-Step, little residue, and the bottles are 16 oz high-quality Euro bottles that retail for a buck fifty a piece!

Palm, a Belgian beer, labels and foil neck ring slipped off after a night in cold water. No residue. A mild concern that the glass seems a bit thin

Paulaner - similar to Krusovice

Spaten Munchen Dunkel is a dream. The labels slip off in hot water, leaving almost no residue. One downside is that they're green bottles

Australia / New Zealand

Coopers - Labels fall right off after a quick (30s) soak, although newer bottles have the Coopers logo embossed in the glass. Some residue left.

Rekorderlig cider bottles (500mL) come right off, no residue.

VB - Labels fall right off with a quick soak & some slight residue left.

East

Blue Point Toasted Lager immediate disqualification on account of twist-top

Erie no amount of heat will melt this glue, and no amount of scrubbing will remove the lables

Harpoon

Magic Hat labels shred but with a bit of patience and a scrubby, they come clean

Smuttynose

Schmaltz Brewing / HE BREW

Southampton Publick House the paper shreds, the glue doesn't scrub off

Southern Tier labels shred but with a bit of patience and a scrubby, they come clean

Canada

UK

Thwaites Tavern Porter - the labels will not come off with heat and/or scrubbing.

Brothers Cider - Plastic labels never come off, thin glass.

Hooch - Green Bottle, weak glass.

Crabbies - The neck of the bottle is tapered and awkward for capping

Europe

Bass - the labels come off fine, but the lip is a non-standard shape with no ridge for the hand-capper to grab on to. The result is a semi-seated cap with no indentation on it. A proper seal is not achieved.

Corsendonk (8 oz Christmas) the foil around the neck is really glued on. The paper labels come off OK, but the glue residue won't come off even with a scotch brite.

Heineken - their new plastic labels are a non-starter

Smithwicks eventually soak off, but even then the labels tear while being removed, leaving pulp (and therefore a vehicle for contamination) in the soak water

Konig Pilsner - slightly odd-sized top.

Kopparberg - The neck of the bottle is tapered and awkward for capping

Australia / New Zealand

Tooheys - screw-top

Other

Unique/Interesting Bottle Styles

Belhaven similar to Samuel Smith

Boulevard short and stout (twist-offs)

Chimay short, stout, curved, tapered neck

Duvel short and bulbous

Founders short and stout

Green Flash 12 oz's have raised star/flash logo in the glass and labels come off easy

Grolsch large, thick green glass with a swing-top, just make sure the rubber seal is in good condition

Virtually all standard bottles in Canada (at least Ontario) are twist-off. Non-standard ones are usually branded with molded glass (Steamwhistle, Mill St., etc) I save bottles from cases of beer I buy in the States because of this.
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user1042Feb 17 '11 at 17:51

2

I'd like to vote for Summit in central as hard to clean. Even soaking with a hot pbw bath...those labels are hell!!!!
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dsidab81Feb 8 '12 at 18:27

I agree - it's all I use... Besides the reusable spring cap, the glass is also pretty thick, and the 16 oz size means less bottles to clean and fill per batch. You do need to replace the rubber gaskets occasionally thought.
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GermFeb 21 '11 at 22:18

I currently live in Ireland and use mostly Grolsch bottles because they are the only swing-top bottles I could find here (besides clear 750ml French lemonade bottles unsuitable for beer). One downside, beside the green color, is that they only contain 450ml instead of the usual 500ml. In my home country Germany some breweries still use the classic brown 500ml swing-top bottles, which are ideal for home brewed beer.
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Martin ScharrerApr 20 '11 at 16:14

Bottles

EDIT: Place your winners and duds (and notes if you like) in PJ's global breakdown.

Soaking

An investment of $6 on some heavy-duty rubber gloves, and $2 on some light cotton gloves, which I wear inside them, has made a huge difference. The ability to work with hotter water means less elbow grease.

I read a recommendation to use StarSan for soaking. It made no difference. I used One-Step and it seems to make a big difference, especially in the scrubbing step.

I use one-step, too. I fill my sink with hot one-step solution, as hot as my tap will get. I then submerge the bottles, filling them, so the glue gets melted from the inside as the paper gets soggified from the outside. I wear gloves and use a scotch-brite to get them off. Quick work.
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JackSmithMar 3 '10 at 18:14

Very similar to my technique. I use a metal scrubby, and I usually pump up the heat with a couple quarts of boiling water from a countertop kettle. Can't hurt.
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Rich ArmstrongMar 3 '10 at 18:21

6

I fill a tub with OxyClean and left it sit overnight. Nearly all the labels come right off, with a few needing a gentle wipe to get the goo off. I do need to rinse, however.
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sgwillMar 4 '10 at 17:00

+1 for Oxyclean, after ~15-30 minutes of a soak in a sinkful of hot water + 1 scoop the labels are easy to remove--some still require a second attempt, but once the paper has peeled then a quick scrub removes all remnants of paper + glue.
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STWFeb 5 '11 at 5:18

Belhaven and Samuel Smith bottles look awesome, so they get re-used. I love the long, untapered neck. I also think it's funny to hand somebody a label-less beer in an old Duvel bottle; It looks like I'm handing them something I bought at a store with lots of neon in the windows located in the seedy section of town.

IIRC, Leffe labels come off very easily. But I think they're 11.2 ounce bottles, not that it really matters.

If you're filling Samuel Smith imperial stout bottles, make sure you're in a well-lit room. They're super-dark. I couldn't see where the liquid level was, even against a bright background!
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Rich ArmstrongMar 3 '10 at 18:23

Good tip. I usually fill from above with the bottles in a case on the open dishwasher door, so I look down into the neck for the fill line and listen to the changing pitch of the filling sound to know when I'm close.
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JackSmithMar 3 '10 at 18:27

Yeah, that's exactly how I do it, but the one Samuel Smith imperial stout bottle I have (which will last forever) is still a bit of a crap shoot.
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Rich ArmstrongOct 23 '10 at 17:06

The bulk of my bottles originally came with either Steam or Porter in them, and they're the only ones I have trouble with. I usually wind up snapping the neck on one of them every batch I bottle.
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TMNDec 17 '12 at 17:33

Cigar City labels are pretty much impossible to get off with the heavy laminated labels. Kinda sucks cause the beer is pretty good. I've soaked them for like 2 weeks in OxyClean without anything permeating the label.

Easy: 50cl Paulaner Weissbier Kristall (and similar bottles from same brewery). Soak in water and just remove some "glue lines" with a dish brush. Very easy, actually came off while cooling in the ocean.

Hard: 33cl Heineken with transparent plastic label (might be Sweden only). The label and glue are a nightmare to remove.

I've edited the question to re-use rather than label-specific. Please feel free to add this to the "Hard to re-use" or "Interesting Bottles" category... :)
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Rich ArmstrongMar 8 '10 at 16:57

I love these bottles. Label rips right off as mentioned, and if you hold the bottle tight and flick it like you are trying to get all the liquid out, the widget will stick out of the top far enough you can get a hold of it and pull it out.
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Bullet86Feb 9 '11 at 6:50

I spray the bottles with some Purple Power industrial degreaser then just run them in the dishwasher. Gets the labels off every time, just remember to remove the labels from the drain of the dishwasher.

For the Southeastern U.S., you can add "Olde Towne" from Huntsville, AL. They're -very- local to this area, and have only been in business for a few years. But if you're lucky enough to be near here, GO FIND SOME. No neck label and the plastic main label peels straight off. They're the BEST for re-usable bottles!

For the painted & silkscreened bottles, just soak them in a starsan solution and the "label" will come right off with a paper towel. After I started doing that, everything is easy. This also works for those laminated labels that don't come off in an oxyclean/onestep solution.

Rahr & Sons (TX only) is super easy. They recently switched to a pre-pasted label type sticker. They come off in one piece leaving behind little or no adhesive with just a little heat. I use a sink full of hot water for 5 or 10 minutes.

UK
belhaven bottles are now clear rather than brown, so I've stopped using them.
Duchars IPA bottles are good - labels come off easily and capping is also easy.
Breakspear - good bottles labels fairly easy to remove
Williams Bros bottles - my staple but more because I like the beer! Cap easily, however labels on some of them (Fraoch!) can be impossible to remove (I keep them on - makes life easier)

Go to the local Dollar Store and pick up some of the Oxy-Clean knock-off which I believe is called L.A.'s Awesome Oxygen Cleanser or something. It's cheap enough....grab a few. And while you're there go to the house cleaning section and get a stiff handbrush.

Soak the bottles in hot water with the fake Oxy-Clean. Most of the labels will peel off after thirty minutes. After that grab the handbrush and use some water and scrubbing to get the remaining glue off.

As far as removing labels and the residue left behind by Sierra Nevada bottles, it helps to soak the bottles in very warm water with baking soda. Then scrub lightly with steel wool, it comes right off.

All the Sam Adams bottles clean very easily. Soak in hot water with some Oxyclean and they just float off. Duval bottles are thicker then most US bottles and handle a higher volume of CO2, but are about 11oz. vs 12 for most others.